Just because somebody’s a conservative doesn’t mean he’s George Bush.

— Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Mr. Harper rebounded in the polls, and pulled ahead of opposition leader Stephane Dion’s Liberals to achieve a narrow victory in Tuesday’s election.

Mr. Dion’s biggest current political problem, besides his shaky command of English, was his support of a carbon tax on all fossil fuels except gasoline. This is actually a good idea: It would use the market to discourage use of oil, gas and coal and to encourage such alternatives as solar and wind. And Mr. Dion said he would compensate for the tax pain by cutting income taxes.

All very reasonable, except for that many voters didn’t believe the income-tax gambit. They look ahead at the furthest about a month. The idea of paying more now to slow global warming later is unappealing, even in Canada, which likes to present itself as a far more civic-minded nation than the United States. Note also that Canada is a big oil and gas producer.

Mr. Harper backtracked from some of his conservative positions to try to stay in power. But he’ll stay comfortably on cruise control when it comes to his opposition to anything like the carbon tax. With Mr. Harper continuing as prime minister, we can expect a continuation of his mildly reformist conservatism. Canadians are temperamentally conservative — in an emotional sense. The rhetoric is milder than in the United States, and expectations always more modest. Obamatrons and McCainiacs would find themselves deeply frustrated.

But give Mr. Dion a little credit for jazzing up things with the unpopular carbon tax. Now if only somebody would yell “Vive Quèbec libre!”